If the Tea Party is So Powerful, What Happened in 2012?

RUSH: Indianapolis, this is Dan. Great to have you, sir, on the EIB Network. Hi.

CALLER: Hi, Rush, thanks for taking my call. Hey, I was just wondering if the Tea Party is so strong, what the hell happened to us in 2012?

RUSH: Stayed home.

CALLER: I would have walked over broken glass to vote against Obama.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: Nothing could have kept me from it.

RUSH: Yeah, but four million of you didn't.

CALLER: I would like to see Sarah Palin get out and start campaigning early --

RUSH: Yeah?

CALLER: -- and get this ball rolling and get her ahead of the ticket.

RUSH: Well, I think she is. She has a Christmas book. She's making TV appearances. She's saying visible.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: You got to time it right. You don't want to wear out your welcome before it actually begins. Now, the Tea Party, I want to go back to what you said about if the Tea Party's so powerful, what happened in 2012? You know, it's amazing what people hear. I constantly learn from this. Do not misunderstand. Earlier in the program, I simply detailed what happened in the 2010 midterms. We all know the Tea Party came into existence, and we know why. Outraged over all the spending and all of the debt and Obamacare, and people who had never before been involved in the political process other than voting, even then, organized. And they started going to town hall meetings.

The Democrats were petrified. Nobody knew who they were. There was no headquarters. There was no leader. There was nobody to demonize. Who are these people? The 2010 midterms resulted in the Democrat Party major landslide defeat. I mean, it was huge. So I point that out, and I guess some people hear me say how powerful the Tea Party is, when I had not said that at all. So the inference was the Tea Party's so powerful. "Well, if they're so powerful in 2010, what happened in 2012?" Well, they didn't show up and I'll take you back down memory lane. All of the pre-presidential polls for 2012 that showed Obama up five, six, I said, "This can't be." And they kept comparing the 2008 turnout. In fact, that's what they used to project the 2012 turnout.

And I said, "Well, why not the 2010 turnout? Why don't you take that?" And the pollsters said because the midterm turnout's far different than the presidential turnout. We can't. I thought that was bogus, but they were right. They're two different turnouts. In 2010, the Republican vote was a total anti-Obama vote. There wasn't a Republican on the ballot to screw it up. In 2012, there was. In 2012, you had the same Tea Party people, and they were just as angry about Obama and Obamacare, but they were not satisfied with what they saw from their party in terms of standing up to it and defeating it, so they stayed home. Four million Republicans that voted in 2008 stayed home in 2012.

Now, you can interview them and ask why. It's fairly easy to figure this out. They didn't show up. In fact, the pro-vote sentiment simply wasn't there. And the anti-Obama sentiment that sent them to the polls in 2010 was not powerful enough to override the anger they felt at the party for not having a decent opponent against Obama in 2012. So they stayed home. It doesn't mean that 2010 was an aberration, and it doesn't mean that the Tea Party isn't powerful. It just means that they're pretty specific about things.

And all you need to know, if you're worried about the Tea Party having lost its power -- and, by the way, there have been news stories like that for the last three years. The Tea Party is gone. There isn't any Tea Party anymore. We don't have to worry about the Tea Party. Then why do people like Chuck Schumer keep demonizing them? They're scared to death of 'em. The Democrat Party's scared to death. They remember 2010. The Republicans never once tried to take advantage of what happened in 2010. The Republicans, it's just one of the most amazing things, there was an instant coalition waiting to be created, and the Republicans made no move on it, 'cause they were conservative, and it just wasn't desired.